Must Do Something About It
by oneiromancer242
Summary: A new student joins Xavier's Academy. Instantly, Peter finds himself distracted by her.
1. A Shocking Turn of Events

**For** **AliceInNeverland95** **who would like to see our little Silver Sweetie with an O/C. Ask and ye might receive. Thanks for reading and reviewing! I don't own anything, but if I did I would keep Peter very safe and happy, you bet I would.**

 **Chapter One**

"As you can see, _de novo_ mutations such as those you see around you can occur even if neither of your parents show any signs of carrying the X-gene. It's impossible to tell when these mutations first occurred, but most theories hold that the X-gene expresses its influence in the gametes of the parents, and not the somatic cells, explaining why you might be able to look at your family, and…."

It wasn't that Dr McCoy was boring the class, honestly. In fact some of them were even pretty interested in the lecture, eager to get some answers as to why they were the only one in a long line of normal humans who had turned out with extraordinary abilities. It was just that the classroom was too hot, the weather outside looked too good, and it was getting far too near lunch time for some of the students to concentrate. In the back row, Kurt was trying hard to pay attention, distracted by the inviting glimmer of the pool he could just about see outside the window. It would feel so good when he could finally get out of here and _*bamf*_ himself down to the poolside for a relaxing swim. His three broad fingers seemed perfect for pushing himself through the water, and right now he was aching to cool off rather than sit here with sweat trickling down the back of his neck. Even Scott and Jean looked like they were having trouble concentrating, a little smirk on the boy's face now and again betraying a silent conversation between the two star students that probably had nothing to do with chromosomes. Or maybe it did…. Kurt grimaced at the thought and dismissed it quickly.

Beside Kurt, Peter was trying his hardest to keep his mind on the class. Whilst the Professor had done a lot in the past few months to help him quiet his racing mind and bring himself down to other people's pace, it was a hard effort to make, especially when it was this close to the moment he could zip out of here and down to the lunch hall. He exchanged an embarrassed look with Jubilation at the desk next to him as his stomach gurgled noisily, tried his best to drag his mind back to the lecture and away from the promise of lunch. The next moment, however, he finally lost all ability to concentrate either on the class, the people in it, or even how unfair the one-hour gaps between meals were on him as he spotted the Professor coming down the corridor with two people in tow.

At the front, Hank rolled his eyes, realising that he had entirely lost the attention of the entire class, and paused. The trio paused outside the classroom and he could hear Xavier explaining

"This is one of our science classes – Dr McCoy is a gifted teacher as well as a scientist, and we do attempt here to make sure that our students get all the education they would be receiving in a mainstream school as well as tuition more tailored to their gifts. Now, down here is -"

They moved on, but Hank knew he would never get the class back to order now and simply said

"We'll continue this after break. Class dismissed, thanks everyone. And don't you care bother the Professor whilst he's giving the tour"

Half the class didn't even stick around to hear the last sentence, a faint smell of burning sulphur spreading through the room as Kurt vanished himself poolside, a streak of silver as Peter racing everyone down to the lunch hall, determined to make it in time to get a second or third helping before anyone else had even finished. Scott and Jean obligingly hanging behind to hear what their teacher was saying before they had walked off as if joined at the hip.

 _Ewww_ , Jubilation thought, picking up her books and walking out with the rest. Those two really were grossing her out lately, and she didn't think she was alone in the sentiment.

Settling herself down with her tray, she almost didn't jump at all as a slightly damp Kurt materialised beside her, _*bamfed_ * again before reappearing with a tray of his own, tearing into the food with almost the speed of their other tablemate. The three of them always ate together, even at a place like this it seemed their quirky personalities and fun-loving natures had drawn them together as a unit apart from all the others.

"That class isn't too bad y'know" she mused, speared a piece of chicken on her fork, "I mean I was never much good at science, but it's cool finding out where we come from"

"Yes, it is good to learn such things," Kurt showed sharp teeth in a grin, "I have never been to a school, but the Beast makes sure he does not leave me behind"

"Really? You never went to school at all?"

"No, but I learned many things with the Circus where I was known as –"

"The Incredible Nightcrawler!" the other two chorused in a gentle mockery of Kurt's accent. The blue boy smiled indulgently, knowing they didn't mean any harm any more than when they would rib Jubilation for her Valley Girl slang.

"How about you, Peter?" she asked, concentrating on her salad, "Did you get much out of school or were you too busy pranking people?"

When no response came, she looked up and saw that the older boy had actually stopped still and was gazing over her shoulder with a weird, distracted look on his face.

"Hey" she tried, "Hellloooo? Earth to Planet Quicksilver, come in, do you read me?"

Jubilation looked around to where he was staring, seeing the Professor speaking with a girl probably about her age. When she looked back, Peter had vanished.

"I hate it when he does that" she sighed.

"So if you'd like to get yourself something to eat, we can meet again in my study this afternoon and have a talk about building you an individual programme" the Professor was saying to the girl, who looked like she was trying to cover nerves and shyness with a sarcastic indifference. "Ahh, this is Peter, he's joined us a few months ago"

The girl looked him up and down as if she'd seen better things free in her cereal, and raised an eyebrow.

"I'll leave you two to get acquainted" the Professor's chair turned and he left them standing in the hall, eyeballing each other

"Do you talk?" the girl asked, "Or just stare?"

"I – yes, all the time. Too much. Totally"

"Oh I see. You talk but you don't make sense?"

She looked a little sorry then at the kicked-puppy look that crossed his face, offered him a half smile that she noticed brought a little flush of pink into his pale cheeks.

"I'm Angela," she offered, "I just got thrown out of three different schools. So why are you here, man?"

Angela had hardly blinked before the boy seemed to vanish, then reappear in front of her with a cocky grin and a pink rose from the garden held out to her, virtually the same colour as the pink streaks in her bangs. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Nice."

"You! You? – what do you do – I mean what's your power. Is it cool? Can you do cool stuff?"

Peter babbled. He could feel the heat in his face intensifying by the millisecond. Angela just smiled again and reached over to take the rose from his fingers. As she did, a spark of blue flashed across their touching skin and Peter jumped back several feet at the sudden shock.

"Cool" he grinned, shaking his numb hand rapidly

"So you like Pink Floyd?" Angela asked, indicating his shirt. It was ratty and faded now, but still one of his favourites, "they suck. Old dude noise"

"Uh.. yeah. And no. I mean, they're awesome" he said, suddenly unsure where to put his eyes, tapping his foot nervously and sticking both hands in his pockets.

"They suck," she repeated, turning away and giving him a wave as she headed toward the lunch counter, calling back over her shoulder, "later, Old Guy"

Peter didn't learn a damn thing the rest of the day, and by the end of the afternoon class Kurt had bounded over to him and laid a hand on his forehead, frowning in concern

"Are you sick, Peter?" the little demon asked, "You're very quiet, and you have not been flicking things at Scott's head all afternoon"

Peter shook the blue hand off, made a puzzled face at his friend.

"I'm fine." He spat, annoyed at the interruption to his train of thought, "hey Kurt, do you think that new kid's going to stay?"

He jumped for the second time that day as Jubilation somehow managed to sneak up and tickle his sides hard, giggling to herself

"Peter's got a cru-uush!" she sang at him, "Nah-nah-nahnah-nah-nah!"

He didn't reply, didn't have to. The evidence was there to see in the way he immediately started turning slightly pink around the cheekbones, leaving his classmates smirking faintly at each other as he sped off to find somewhere less embarrassing to be.

 **A/N : I'm very happy to take suggestions on direction for this one, hope you enjoy this as things progress. Today's title is courtesy of Wings, with the title song appearing in the album "At The Speed Of Sound".**


	2. A Stranger of a Different Kind

**What's this? No Peter in this chapter? He must be off raiding the fridge or something...**

 **Chapter 2**

Angela hated her room. It was dark, and old-looking, and it smelled weird in there. She huffed impatiently and kicked her empty suitcase under the bed, sauntering over to the full length mirror to examine her teeth, fix her hair, generally preen a little. It didn't matter if she ended up hating it, she thought, she wouldn't be staying too long. This was only the second boarding school her Father had tried, but she was sure that it wouldn't be long before she damaged something or got herself into trouble enough that she'd be thrown out of here too and have to go home.

Fetching a couple of candles out of a drawer, she lit them and started flicking through her albums for something to listen to. _Something cool_ , she thought to herself, _not lame stuff like Pink Floyd or whatever…._ Settling on the latest Eurythmics album and popping it onto the little wind-up turntable she'd got for her birthday. She did have one of the new Walkmans – briefly – but it had short-circuited and blown up pretty fast. Angela had been so annoyed, she'd thought a battery-operated player would be safe from her little sparks and had saved her allowance for weeks to buy the thing. She flung herself down on the bed, folded her hands behind her head, mouthing along to the lyrics and trying to be happy here for the short time she thought she'd be staying. It wasn't long before a soft tap at the door disturbed her and she groaned as she went to open the door.

The girl standing outside was a little smaller than her, with long glossy black hair pulled into high pigtails and a big, pink-lipstick smile that she offered openly. Angela huffed again. Why bother making friends? She wasn't going to be sticking around.

"I'm Jubilation Lee" the girl at the door offered a hand, which Angela only eyed warily and didn't take, "people called me Jubilee"

"Angela Goldsmith" the newcomer replied, not standing aside, "People call me Troublemaker"

Jubilation frowned a little, then shrugged

"Well, I guess it's not bad for a codename" she said, and offered the little bow-tied package she held in her other hand, "I brought you some snacks. The Professor doesn't like us having lots of sweet stuff but there's a stash in the pantry if you ever get the craving"

Despite herself, Angela smiled at the proffered package of Ding Dongs that Jubilee held out to her, careful not to touch the girl's skin as she took them. She'd been determined not to give anyone around here an inch, but Jubilation's friendliness was catching, and she found herself standing aside a little to let the girl in.

"Wow, you have a gramophone!" she remarked, going over to eye the contraption, "totally retro"

Angela returned to sit down, where Jubilee joined her to sit cross-legged on the bed without invitation. Somehow though, even though Angela was used to holding people at arm's length, she didn't really mind. She carefully untied the yellow bow around the package of snacks and held one out to the other girl. Sitting for a moment or two in peaceful silence whilst they nibbled their treats.

"How do you like the school so far?"

"S'Okay," Angela shrugged, "It's better than Bradbury, where I was before"

"Isn't that the school that just had to be evacuated because the generator went nuts?"

"That's the one," Angela said glumly. She didn't elaborate, but Jubilation got the distinct feeling that she knew exactly what had happened there. She stayed quiet for a few minutes, letting the new girl come round in her own time, remembering how scary her first night had been.

"Y'know, it's alright here. There's some good people – and we're all a little unusual, so you don't have to worry about not fitting in"

Angela only made a little _hmf_ sound, blowing her pink-streaked hair out of her eyes and shoving the rest of her treat into her mouth at once. Looking up in surprise as Jubilation giggled, covering her mouth with her hand and trying to control herself.

"Sorry… you just really reminded me of someone then"

"Oh really?" the girl asked sarcastically. She didn't betray much emotion on the surface, but out in the corridor the lights flickered a little. Jubilation noticed, and only smiled more kindly.

"You wanna see something cool?" she asked, not waiting for a reply before she raised both hands and wriggled her fingers slightly. Angela watched in fascination as little sparks started to shoot from the tips of her fingers, changing from red to blue to purple and back again to red. She grinned, suitably impressed.

"I can do it way bigger than that," Jubilation said proudly, "but it took me ages to learn to control it"

"That has gotta be the most useless thing I've ever seen," the girl said, "I love it"

Later, when they had both begun to yawn and Jubilation had returned to her own room, Angela changed into nightclothes and tried to get some sleep. Whilst it was a pretty good feeling to have ended up somewhere like this, she didn't hold out any hope that it would last. Nobody had ever been able to put up with her for too long – and honestly, why should they when she destroyed things and hurt people without even meaning to? She'd probably stick around here for a few weeks before that bald guy who'd shown her around would tell her, sorry, you're too much of a freak for us, and send her back home to her Dad again. She was getting used to that by now, though it still riled her up when people should know that she really couldn't help it.

Angela pulled the covers over her head and pretended she wasn't having a little weep at the idea that she wouldn't be able to stay here for long. She liked Jubilee, and the Professor, and even that weird guy from the lunch hall was at least interesting (and cute, don't forget cute). It would be a shame when she got kicked out of here too. From somewhere else in the building she could hear someone else's music, then a yell to turn it down. Someone laughing, and a few showers running. Best not settle in and get used to those noises, she thought, wondering why she'd even bothered unpacking her suitcase. Eventually, Angela fell into a miserable, snuffly doze.


	3. Prank Vs Prank

**Hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. I own nothing, noooo-thiiiing.**

The weekend rolled around, and Angela still hadn't managed to do anything bad enough that she was expelled. That in itself seemed like a cause for celebration with her, and she had gladly joined some of her new schoolmates downstairs for their regular Saturday night treat. Once a week, the Professor would allow them all to order take-out and even let the older kids have a couple of beers once all the underage ones had gone to bed. Over the last week, Hank had fashioned her a pair of insulating gloves that allowed her to touch people without giving them shocks, and was working on a way to dampen her electrical discharges so that she could start learning to control them. Despite her initial misgivings, she was starting to feel pretty comfortable around here. Helping herself to a slice of pizza with a grin, settling in between Scott and Jubilation, everybody seemed to be getting along fine until Scott had looked around with a puzzled frown and asked:

"Where's Pain-In-The-Butt?"

Jean closed her eyes a moment, before turning to the boy in shades with an equally confused look

"He's not in the Mansion. Do you think he's alright?"

"I don't know," Scott frowned more deeply. Angela got the impression that though he wasn't the oldest, he fancied himself in charge of the class, "think we should go look for him?"

"Nah. We might get a second slice without him around. I'm sure he's fine"

After a moment when Scott seemed to consider this dubiously, then settled with the idea. Angela kept quiet and finished her slice. Since he was at a more advanced stage of his training here, she hadn't seen much of the weird silver-haired kid since that first day when he had presented her with a rose by way of introduction. Whilst everyone around here seemed to find him completely exasperating, nobody appeared to genuinely dislike him. Equally though, nobody seemed able to tell her very much about him. Maybe he never stood still for long enough for people to get to know him, or maybe he just didn't want to be known – she could sympathise with that at least. Some of them even seemed a little wary of him – though to be fair, they were the same with the pretty redhead whom she was pretty sure was Scott's girlfriend. Angela didn't much like the girl, always got headaches when she was around, and didn't like the penetrating way she fixed her steel-blue eyes on people. The others were okay though – even the strange blue guy who despite his frightening appearance was actually really sweet, and of course Jubilation, who had continued to try to include Angela in everything and introduce her to everybody.

Still, the missing member of the crew was the one she was interested in, for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on. Trying to dismiss him from her mind, she had whiled away the evening playing board games with the rest of the students, before returning to her room. Yawning as she had pushed open the slightly-open door, Angela screamed at the top of her lungs with shock, bringing Kurt and Scott immediately up the stairs to find out what had happened. Their concerned faces soon turned into barely-controlled smiles, then uncontrollable guffaws of laughter as they saw their newest student standing in her doorway with a large pile of multi-coloured glitter gently sifting down off her head. More glitter surrounded her, covered her black clothes, and spread out in remarkably pretty puffs as she moved. One more little giggle drew her attention and she glanced furiously over to the open window, where a certain person was perched on the window frame looking very pleased with himself. She spat a mouthful of sparkles and glared daggers at him.

"I'll get you for this" she warned darkly

"You'll have to catch me first" he grinned maddeningly, and was gone out of the window before she had even twitched a muscle to retaliate. Turning to the small cluster of students who were standing out in the corridor looking at her with kind amusement.

"Welcome to the Academy," Scott smiled wryly at her, "You have now officially been Quicksilvered"

Outwardly, Angela smiled good-humouredly at the irritating but harmless prank – it could have been water, of course, but she figured he knew better than to douse someone who produced electricity and expect no harm to come of it. Inwardly, however, she fumed. This meant war.

Over the following week, the students of Xavier's Academy grew very used to horrified screaming, outbursts of yelling, and furious swearing from the direction of both Angela and Peter's rooms. The following Monday, when she had finally managed to wash all the glitter out of her hair, Angela had persuaded Kurt to help her attach everything Peter owned, including his clothes, to the ceiling of his room with duct tape. To add insult to injury, she had even used his own stash of duct tape to do it. The day after that, Angela had spent the entire morning red-faced and smelling faintly of chicken soup after Peter had unscrewed the head of her shower and shoved a few stock cubes in there. On Wednesday even Jean had been unable to control her giggles as the greedy speedster had been sent gagging from the room when a plate of Oreos left by Angela had turned out to have had all the filling scraped out and replaced with toothpaste. On Thursday, Angela had spat a mouthful all over the floor in revulsion when she took a swig from her bottle of orange juice to find that it had been replaced with egg yolks. On Friday, she had yet again taken advantage of his inability to resist unattended treats and left what had appeared to be a couple of delicious caramel apples in the refrigerator, crying with laughter when he'd discovered they were in fact raw onions. By the time Saturday had rolled around again, the rest of the students had been wary of sitting anywhere near the two when they had both shown up for Saturday night take out. To everyone's surprise, however, Peter had only smiled shyly at the new girl and come over to sit as close as he could without getting electrocuted. Angela smiled back, a little rosy touch coming into her face.

"Truce?" she said quietly, a sweet fond smile playing over her lips. Peter grinned back and nodded

"Sure."

There was an audible sigh of relief at the end of the prank war from the other students, and Jubilee nudged Kurt pointedly, giving him a meaningful look which he returned with a cheeky smile and a nod. Both of them had the feeling that Angela would be glad of her non-shock gloves before too long. When all the pizza had been devoured and Scott was busying himself dealing out cards for Go Fish, Angela had reached behind her chair and pulled out a Krispy Kreme box, opening it and holding it out in Peter's direction. For a few seconds his face was an absolute picture, torn between really _really_ wanting one of the doughnuts and desperately wishing to avoid being pranked yet again.

"Hey, we called a truce, remember?" she said, "Go ahead"

Gluttony finally won out, and he picked up a Bavarian crème as if it might bite him and took a tentative bite. Find it to be full of sugary goodness and nothing else, he had finished it quickly, concentrating on his cards as he reached for another. This time, however, his expression had rapidly turned to disgust and slight nausea. Angela erupted with laughter.

"Is that _mayonnaise?!_ "

He mumbled around the revolting mouthful. Unable to speak, she just nodded at him. Reached for an empty carton for him to dispose of the mayo-nut and continued to practically choke herself with laughter as he wiped his mouth disgustedly. Jubilation squeezed Kurt's hand in delight, as if to say _I think he finally met his match._


	4. Vital Signs

**Thanks for all the lovely reviews you've left, it's really good to know people are enjoying this. I'd be very interested to hear what you think of the O/C Angela at this point? I've got ideas about what I'd doing with her, but I'd like to know if you like her, hate her, think she's boring, or want to know more about her? In either case, enjoy a little Dadneto interlude.**

Erik had anticipated that his short visit to the mansion would be an uneventful one. Truly he had come to consult Raven, possibly even ask for her help on a small matter that her mimickry would make considerably easier, but of course he couldn't come and go without making some time for his son. It was really quite disgusting how fond he was growing of the kid, wondered if Charles had a hand in sneakily manipulating his emotions toward an odd, as yet uncomfortable sensation of love for him, but a few moments thought had corrected him on the matter. Really there was no need to tweak his mind in order to make him feel a fierce sense of protectiveness toward his offspring. As such, he had been glad to see the annoying little creature sitting in his study chair with his feet on the desk, still except for the restless blur of his hands. Charles had supplied him with several thick plastic bands which he was now never seen without, it gave him something to fiddle with and genuinely helped the boy focus. As Erik entered, the band was quickly returned to his pocket as he cracked a huge grin at the older man.

"Yo! Dadneto" he drawled, "How's it hangin'?"

"Feet" Erik said simply, pointing to the speedster's worn trainers resting on the polished maple wood surface of the desk. "Down"

Obliging his father, Peter had given him ten minutes of his usual rapid-fire chatter, catching him up with a blow-by-blow account of the last two weeks whilst Erik had been away. Erik nodded in what he hoped were all the right places, feeling a little giddy with the effort to keep up with Peter's rambling, now over by the bookshelves fluttering through pages as he spoke, now pacing rapidly in front of the window, finally coming to rest in the chair opposite Erik. He looked expectantly at his Father, as if he expected just as detailed an account of his own fortnight in return.

"Did you actually draw breath at any point in the last few minutes?" Erik asked, a little quirk of a smile making his eyes sparkle. Peter grinned in return.

"Sure I did. Whatcha doing here anyway? Not that I'm complaining"

He zipped over to the drinks cabinet which Erik was certain he had locked before he left, reappearing back in the chair devouring a Tootsie Roll. Erik raised a questioning eyebrow to which the boy only shrugged

"What? The Prof would never think to look in there"

"Don't they feed you enough without you concealing contraband around the Academy?"

"Seriously?," Peter looked taken aback at the very thought, "Dude, I'd waste away if I didn't have stashes of proper food. I'd probably be dead in like, a week"

Erik rolled his eyes, though he had to admit the boy was probably right. Charles hadn't really been thinking of kids with super-speed metabolisms when he was coming up with his plan for what the students needed.

"I'm here to see Raven," he answered finally, "I'll be in town a few days"

"What do you want with Mamma Smurf? Are you doing something cool? Can I come? I bet I could help out"

"Peter…"

"Please? He whined. This time though, it wasn't going to work.

"No."

Erik immediately regretted the harshness of his tone. It was easy to forget how left-out Peter could feel, but genuinely this just wasn't the sort of job that a jumpy little urchin would be an asset on. It took patience, and planning, and absolutely no impulsive acts of chaos. His expression softened and he tried to keep his tone soft as he went on.

"But I'll have time to spend with you if you'd like" Peter immediately brightened at the idea, "I'll be around the mansion, I wanted to meet the new student whilst I was here. Control over electrical conduction seems like a fascinating skill"

Caught in a train of thought, he didn't see the odd expression that crossed his son's face at the mention of the new girl. Oblivious, Erik asked

"Have you had the chance to meet her yet?"

Finally, Erik looked up and saw that all of Peter's relaxed arrogance had vanished. In fact, he had never seen the boy look so pensive before, immediately worrying him. Had this new student already crossed swords with him? If so, Erik would find something suitably unpleasant to put her through, if she had upset his son.

"Peter?" he frowned, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing! You know I really should – "

Catching him in the act of rising from the chair, Erik put out a hand and pushed him back down without touching him. He hadn't even thought about the gesture – any kind of magnetic metal called out to him silently as if instructing him to bend it to his will, and he'd instinctively taken hold of all the extra iron in the boy's blood and _shoved_. Peter looked absolutely ashen, bending double with a groan.

"What the _hell_ , man?" he moaned, but didn't try to leave again, too occupied with not passing out or throwing up as all the blood that had suddenly vacated his brain rushed back. Erik was aghast at his actions, and before Peter's vision had cleared fully he was kneeling in front of the chair with the tousled silver head in his hands, lifting his face to look at him. A little colour was starting to come back into his cheeks now, and Erik took a deep relieved breath.

"I'm so sorry," he said quietly, hardly realising that he was cupping the boy's cheek in his hand, one thumb stroked gently over his jaw, "are you alright?"

Peter shook his head to clear it, swallowed hard a couple of times. Suddenly his lunch didn't feel like it was sitting so comfortably, but mostly the spinning feeling had gone. Erik was profoundly relieved, if he'd tried that with a normal human he would probably have given them an instant stroke, but thankfully Peter had much stronger veins than most to handle his catastrophically high blood pressure.

"No offense, Dad, but it'd be swell if you never ever did that again" he smiled weakly, "What were you sayin'?"

Erik smiled back despite himself, intensely glad that he'd done the boy no harm. He really would have to learn to control himself a little better. It might be very tempting to exploit all the extra metal in his body to make him sit still, but Erik hated the idea of bringing on a swoon like that again.

"I was asking you about Miss Goldsmith" he said quietly, watching Peter's face carefully this time, "Our newest recruit"

The final traces of ashy pallor had vanished in an instant as Erik's son blushed to the roots of his hair. So that was why he had tried to flee as soon as Erik brought the girl up. _Oh dear,_ the older man thought, _oh dear oh dear oh dear…._

"She's cool," Peter blurted out, "I mean, mostly she sucks, and she's annoying, and I kind of hate her, but I suppose she's okay really if you ignore like, everything about her"

"Sounds familiar" Erik said drily. Peter gave him another wobbly smile and accepted his help to get to his feet, dusting himself down ostentatiously as if he'd just beaten off an army rather than nearly thrown a faint.

"Yeah, well you'll meet her soon enough I'm sure, she's *always* around. She's such a pain. In the meantime though, you totally owe me for that"

Erik sighed, reaching for his jacket from the back of the chair

"Where this time?"

Peter made a show of thinking about it, before he had widened his eyes pleadingly and said

"Pizza Hut?"

 **A/N : Sharp eyed fans who share my taste in music will know that 'Vital Signs' is from the album 'Moving Pictures' by Rush, and further know that Peter wore the promotional shirt for this album in "X-Men : Apocalypse".**


	5. Differentials

**Thank you all so, so much for reading and reviewing, and especially for giving me a little feedback on Angela - I hope you'll get to know her a little more over the next couple of chapters. As always I own nothing. Enjoy!**

"Ewww! My god what is WRONG with you! You're disgusting!"

Jean howled and pushed Scott forcefully away from her and into the side of the booth. Grabbing a pack of doublemint gum out of her pocket, she threw it at him and glared

"If you ever come near me with anchovy breath again, Summers, I'll blow your mind in a way you won't enjoy at all"

Scott, looking guilty as sin, popped a couple of sticks of gum in his mouth and inched a little back toward the redhead. She didn't spare him a glance, only stared sullenly at Jubilation and Angela playing air hockey. In all honesty she had no idea why she'd even agreed to join them, when she could be back at the Academy doing some extra homework or practicing with Professor Xavier, rather than wasting time hanging out at the mall with these guys. But then Scott had given her that look (the one she alone could tell he was giving her by the reflection in his mind) and she'd relented. She'd be damned if she let him kiss her with fish breath though, that was just a step too far. She didn't even like coming to places like this, and would have thought that her fellow students would have felt the same, but it appeared that the kids who affectionately referred to themselves as "The Class of Mutant High" liked the idea of pretending to be normal kids as often as possible. It just struck Jean as silly to pretend, but she let them have their fun, knowing it wouldn't last forever – the world was far too dangerous a place for that.

As if in confirmation of her thoughts, a sudden wave of darkness crept in at the edge of her perception, and she tasted metal in her mouth as if she'd bitten her tongue. Her eyes sought out the source of the unpleasant sensation as her mind reached out across the restaurant to do the same, soon lighting on a tall, dark haired man. Jean shuddered inwardly, recognising the man who had accompanied them back to the Academy after the battle in Cairo. She knew Xavier trusted him, but she thought him a fool for that – she could feel the powerful hatred in him, and even if he'd helped them rebuild the school she would never accept him into her heart as some of the others had. Wondering why he was here, she whispered silently to Scott

 _"_ _Look. It's him."_ Scott followed her gaze, spluttered a little into his Coke. He'd thought the man had left for good a few months ago and been glad to see the back of him. Jean frowned at her companion, _"_ _What's he doing here?"_

Carefully, Scott leaned out of the booth a little for an unobstructed view, studying the tall figure. Jean could feel his confusion in his answer.

 _"_ _Ordering pizza?"_

That certainly seemed to be the case, and Jean was about to suggest they left when Angela suddenly overshot badly at the air hockey table, sending the large plastic puck skittering across the floor toward Erik's feet. Before she could stop herself, the girl dived for it and made a grab, which entirely missed the puck and instead wrapped around Erik's lower leg. Intensely glad to be wearing her insulating gloves, Angela grinned sheepishly from her position kneeling on the floor, looking up into the penetrating gaze that bored down at her.

Erik regarded the girl gravely. Too much eyeliner, and bright blue at that, a ruffled crop of gold-blonde hair with several streaks of neon pink dyed into the front, and a ring adorning one nostril that he somehow resisted the urge to remotely tug at.

"Hi" she grinned, and made a weird nervous noise that may have been a laugh, picking up the puck and waving it rather stupidly at him, "I… just wanted to get this"

"Get up, let go of me, and go away. In any order" Erik hissed at her. Shifting his leg slightly in the threat of a kick if she didn't immediately comply. Thankfully, Angela scooted back on her butt a few feet before she had got up and tried to back away with a little dignity. She didn't really manage it, arriving back at the booth where Jubilation had retreated and trying to straighten her dress, cheeks flaming with humiliation.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Jubilation suggested. Jean beamed eagerly, started to get her coat, before Angela snapped

"No."

"But – "

"I'm not going to let some grumpy old jerk scare us out!" she insisted, "Anyway, I want another Coke, I'm thirsty"

Leaving the group, she took her cup back to the sofa pumps and joined the short queue, waiting for a refill and another scoop of ice when familiar chords started up from the jukebox. She smiled to herself, not even realising that she had begun to sway her hips in time to the music, a haunting and distinctive voice overlaying the electronic music and deep bass. Angela mouthed along, she loved this song

 _Love, love love is a dangerous drug.._

 _You have to receive it but you still can't get enough of the stuff…_

She refilled her cup, taking a big satisfying sip as she turned to go back to the table, stopping dead as she saw Peter standing over by the jukebox, choosing the next few songs with uncharacteristic care and slowness. She guessed he tried to keep it steady when he was out in public like this – though she didn't know why he bothered, he was more than capable of moving too fast to be perceived. If she could do that, she'd just zoom about wherever she liked and know that no-one could even see her. Of course, since she couldn't do that, she failed to consider the fact that doing so would send things flying in the slipstream - people who weren't speedsters didn't realise how much attention speeding could really attract. Slipping past whilst his back was turned to her, she settled herself back into the booth, waving Scott aside so she could sit away from prying eyes. The others had quickly fallen into a discussion of the homework assignment they had due, and which they probably should have been at home doing now.

Jubilation twirled a finger in her hair, frowning in concentration at the page Jean had laid out in front of her. It seemed to be written in a foreign language, and she briefly wished that the Professor didn't think it so important that they got a decent education.

"Nope," she sighed, "Never going to get it"

Slurping on her Coke, Angela pulled the page over to see it better and gave it a quick read. She hadn't even looked at her homework yet, there had seemed better things to do every time she thought about it. After a minute or two she swiftly pulled the pen out of Jean's hand, and began working through the pageful of calculations whilst she finished her drink, before returning the redhead's paper and smiling sweetly at her.

"What?" she said, "It's only differential equations guys, it could be way worse"

"You're a math whizz?!" Scott looked incredulous

"I wouldn't say a whizz, dude, but I like math. It's orderly, it makes sense" she shrugged, hoovered around the bottom of her glass, "sometimes it's nice for stuff to make sense. Plus it kept me out of trouble for a while to be making good grades"

She could tell that behind his shades, Scott's eyes were wide with surprise. She wondered what the boy had thought of her before finding out that she enjoyed a page of equations. It was an easy judgement, she supposed, to think of her as a class clown and mischief maker – and after all, she'd held her own against the school's most notorious prankster. That mischief was really only a small part of her, however, and before her mutation had surfaced she'd been a top-class student heading for an excellent college. Of course, once she started breaking things, blowing up anything electrical, and putting people in comas when she lost her temper, her Dad had moved her from school to school, riding on her grades to get her in before she had been swiftly back out again after a series of destructive accidents. It made her a little sad to think she could have been following her plan of applying for Harvard by now if she hadn't happened to have been born a freak.

Scott and Jean had soon left the group, wandering off to do whatever the sickening lovebirds did when nobody was looking, and Angela and Jubilation had been left to walk back to the Academy alone. Slipping out of the other door to avoid their classmate, keeping a comfortable silence for a while before Jubilation had said

"It's going to be term break soon. Are you staying around for it?"

"Dunno. You?"

"Yeah," Jubilation smiled a little sadly, "the class is the only family I have really. I always stay for breaks…. So if you are too…?"

Angela chewed her bottom lip a moment, hesitating to reply. Jubilation had made her so welcome, it seemed mean to tell her that actually she thought she might go home for a little while. Plus the girl seemed sad about staying at the Academy during break. Angela imagined it got quiet around there without the rabble of students in the halls.

"Maybe for a bit," she admitted, "but I want to go see my Dad too. He's taking some time out of work at the same time, and it'd be nice to get some home cooking"

To her surprise and relief, Jubilation looked delighted at the idea. She was starting to realise how much the girl genuinely liked seeing other people happy, and wondered if she'd always been that way or just been made miserable so many times herself that she'd developed a way to vicariously enjoy other's happiness. It wasn't something Angela herself was particularly good at, more often just becoming morose and irritable when things weren't going her way.

"Was that your Dad with you when you first came?"

"Yep – if he comes to pick me up you should meet him, he's a total dude. Really funny too, I guess I get the tricks from him. When I was a kid he used to make me an apple-pie bed at least once a week"

Jubilation laughed, pushed open the main door to let Angela pass

"What about your Mom?"

"Ummm…. My Mom died, when I was little" Angela glanced at the other girl, and quickly went on "it's okay! You can ask and all, I hardly remember her. It's just been me and Dad for ages now though"

"No brothers and sisters?"

"Nope. One of me is enough I guess" she smiled fondly, "It was great though, Dad's awesome, he even used to come to dance classes with me, never even cared what he looked like twirling about with all the girls"

"You dance? Cool!"

"Been a while. I'd like to get back into it though"

In truth, Angela missed dancing more than she could say. It was the only activity on the gym programmes at her schools that she'd been able to stand, finding she had nothing at all in common with the jocks and cheerleaders that cluttered up the rest of the teams. Though before all the sparks and craziness she'd had no trouble making friends, she'd always felt at her most comfortable when dancing. She wasn't an amazing dancer, but she loved to feel the rhythms and let herself move, it was a kind of freedom that she craved. Better than fumbling through games of basketball and hockey that seemed to last for hours, floundering around in the pool, or worst of all tripping over her own feet on the track. Damn, she'd hated track. That was one thing which really suited her about the Academy, not being forced into mandatory classes that she absolutely hated.

"Well, if you want to go dancing some time there's a nightclub in town that's pretty cool. Also there's a lot of us there, so you'll fit right in" Jubilation grinned, and looked around before she whispered conspiratorially, "You know Dazzler? Well I heard she goes there sometimes. We might even meet her!"

Angela was impressed. She wasn't much into the disco-beat phenomenon that was Dazzler, but it would be pretty good to meet a famous mutant. Someone to look up to, even.

"Sure," she said, reaching the door of her room "maybe"

Jubilation hesitated before leaving Angela, shuffling her feet a little nervously until she had finally said

"Hey.. if you're not busy later, could you maybe help me out with my homework?" she smiled pleadingly, "I didn't realise you were so smart. It'd be great if you can help me bend my head around it"

Angela grinned and laughed kindly at her. It felt good to get such a normal request, after the past year or so being thought of as 'that weird moody kid' and being steered well clear of.

"Absolutely" she agreed, "on the condition you teach me how to make those paper birds you were busy with when the Professor was telling us how to do the homework"


	6. The Pupil in Magic

**Nothing is mine. OK, Angela is mine, and I sort of wish Kurt was mine too the little cutie-pie... Chapter Six, with cameos and bubbles.**

With term break in full swing, the Academy was a much more peaceful place. Angela had spent a week at home enjoying the comfort of her own bed, her Father's company, and time to herself before she had a little regretfully returned to the mansion to find that virtually all the students who had stayed behind were engaged on their own projects. That suited her perfectly – though she liked to be social when she felt like it, she was immensely happy to be free to take a book out onto the spacious lawns and get some peace and quiet for a change.

She'd spent much of the morning down in Dr. McCoy's lab, with Kurt helping him fetch and carry whilst he worked on the rig he was developing for her. There were only a few students that Angela really felt she could be herself around, but the blue boy was definitely one of them – his enthusiasm was catching, and she couldn't help but find his accent a little adorable. In fact, it was his book that she was looking forward to settling down with – a volume of Goethe's poetry in translation which he thought she'd enjoy. Between Hank and Kurt, they had gotten her strapped up with a harness that wrapped around her back and down her arms, and both men had retreated whilst Angela nervously experimented with a few little sparks. To the delight of all three, within an hour she had been turning a lightbulb on and off without shattering it. Hank had taken the contraption back to tinker with, promising her a working prototype that was a lot lighter by the end of the week, and she had gladly gone away with her heart feeling a little lighter at the idea of being able to control her power. Hank had even suggested that if she got the hang of it, she could probably affect people in more ways than just giving them a nasty jolt, given that a lot of biology ran on organically generated electricity. Whilst that day seemed a long way off, she had been excited at the possibilities.

The gardens of the mansion were deserted apart from a few students playing Frisbee, a couple of people sat like herself enjoying the solitude, and she sighed with pleasure as she settled underneath a large shady tree and took out Kurt's book from her bag. Absorbed into the lilt of language, she had not realised that she'd fallen into her old habit of reading aloud to herself, tasting the harmonies of the poems in the still, warm afternoon

"Now no longer  
Can I bear him;  
I will snare him,  
Knavish sprite!  
Ah, my terror waxes stronger!  
What a look! what fearful sight!"

She drew breath to continue, and stopped as she felt eyes on her and looked up to see Professor Xavier on the nearby path, taking the air with a kind-looking older woman. Both were watching her sat under the tree, reading poems to herself. Angela blushed scarlet, and gave them a little wave and a half-grin half-cringe.

"You read beautifully" the Professor said with a kind smile, "But then again, I would have expected that of you. I'm told you are exceptionally well engaged in your literature classes"

Angela gaped, trying to find something sensible to say and finding the embarrassment preventing words emerging, before she eventually managed to choke out a quick "Thanks".

"I'm sorry, where are my manners?" he continued, "Angela, this is Magda. Magda, our newest student"

The older woman gave her a pleasant, lopsided smile that struck a weirdly familiar chord and gave her a friendly little wave

"A pleasure to hear a young lady like yourself enjoying Goethe" Magda smiled, "That's 'The Pupil in Magic' isn't it?"

"Uhhuh." She smiled back. Something about the woman was intensely familiar, she just wished she could put her finger on it.

"Someone used to read it to me, a long time ago" she said a little wistfully, "In German, of course, but it's good to hear it again."

"Thanks," the girl said again, "Are you a teacher? I haven't seen you here before"

Magda laughed kindly, shook her head

"No no – my son is a student here. I just came to visit him while classes are out" she cast a meaningful glance at the Professor, "and to make sure he's behaving himself a little"

Xavier returned her smile with an edge of cheekiness, nodded to Angela before they turned to leave her in peace

"It was nice to meet you" Magda said, and sounded like she really meant it. Angela watched them continue along the path, catching just the smallest bit of their conversation.

"As I was saying, he's making some good progress, settling down a bit. Though I must admit the past few months he's been a little…."

The Professor's voice trailed off as they went out of her range of hearing. She watched them a little longer, pulling at her gold-pink bangs with a puzzled frown before she shrugged and returned to her book. After a while, the air had started to turn a little cooler and she regretfully picked herself up and headed back to the mansion.

A few more students had drifted back, and as she walked she saw Jubilation and Kurt squatting down on the grass with a large shallow tray between them. Wondering what the two were up to, she wandered over to join them.

"What's up guys?" she squatted down beside them, hiking up her ankle length skirt to get comfortable, "what are you doing?"

"Angela!" Kurt exclaimed delightedly, "Jubilee has found this, would you like to join us?"

Really, that boy was far too cute, she thought, grinning and picking up the instructions that were laying in the grass beside them whilst Jubilation carefully twisted a large loop of wire into an even circle.

"Magic Bubbles?" she read aloud, "What's that about?"

"I do not know, but it sounds very exciting don't you think?"

Kurt's pointed tail was making little thrashing circles behind him, and Angela couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiasm. She didn't know much about where Xavier had found him, but she got the impression that it was somewhere without a whole lot of entertainment, given the way that the smallest of things had the power to enthral and amuse him. It was good for her to be around someone like that, reminded her of how she'd been as a kid – into everything, never bored with so much to explore.

"It's a giant bubble making kit" Jubilation explained, carefully laying the loop of wire on the surface of the tray, which Angela could now see was filled with liquid, "We found it in Hank's lab, it must be super old but I think the bubble stuff's still good"

She drew the loop gently upwards, and Kurt gasped with joy as a huge cylindrical bubble followed it.

"Truly, that is indeed magical" he muttered, awestruck by even that simple beauty. Angela grinned at him

"Nah, that's surface tension," she corrected, "But it is pretty neat. Can I try it?"

The three of them had amused themselves for a good twenty minutes, getting the hang of the kit and eventually producing huge bubbles a metre across, laughing like much younger children as Kurt took delight in leaping for them and popping them. Absorbed in their play, they hadn't noticed a fourth person materialise until he had spoken

"Whatcha doin'?" Peter asked, "Oh wow, giant bubbles! Can I try it? Can I? Ca –"

"Oh my _god_ Maximoff can you just wait for someone to answer you before you worry at it like a damn puppy?!" Angela huffed. Knowing she didn't have to ask the others – they were sharing types, after all – she handed the loop over and stepped back for him to try it.

The first few attempts were pretty pathetic. In fact, all of them were, until eventually Angela had lost her patience with the boy

"You're doing it too quickly, as usual" she snapped, "Here, like this"

Without thinking, she placed her hands over his and took control to draw the loop of wire gently through the air, leaving a glistening bubble in its wake.

"See?" she said, watching the wobbling sphere drift off, "You have to be steady, or it doesn't work"

When no response came, she looked back at the older boy, who was totally ignoring the huge bubble, staring instead at her hands firmly covering his own. Angela could feel a little shake in them, and surprised at herself she immediately let go.

"Do you want to try it again?" Jubilation asked. Peter shook his head, thrusting the loop of wire back at Kurt and taking a step back from them

"No.. no – you guys have fun. I've got to – I have a – there's a thing. With… yeah – I have to go do a thing Kseeyalaterbye"

For a moment, the three stared at the empty space where he had been a half-second before, until Angela had raised an eyebrow and turned to Jubilee, hiking a thumb in the direction he had fled.

"What's eating him?" she asked. Jubilee glanced down at her friend's hands, and replied

"You…. aren't wearing your gloves, you know"

 **A/N : Title and poem are from "The Pupil in Magic" by JW von Goethe. Read some Goethe, it's good for you.**


	7. The Body Electric

**So you wanted to know how Peter would cope with relating to a normal speed person? Well...**

 **He's not mine. None of this is mine. Except all the writing of course.**

Peter was pacing. Most would call it 'running up one wall, across the ceiling, down the other wall and back again', but he called it pacing. And fretting. And trying to sort out whatever was going on in his head. He'd thrown his headphones on and cranked the music up to full blast, trying to get absorbed into it the way he usually could and failing miserably. This just wasn't right, and he really didn't need it right after what had been a very pleasant morning with an unexpected visit from his Mother. Magda never called ahead or warned him when she was going to show up, knowing that he'd wind himself up with excitement and anticipation by the time she got there if she gave him the chance.

 _What the hell did she do to me?_ He thought, picking up his speed a little more, unaware of the marks he was leaving on the walls.

That girl was maddening. Alright, so she was pretty – lots of girls were pretty, and none of them made him feel so off-kilter this way. Even before today she'd been a source of frustration as much as one of fascination, trying his best to alternately ignore her and to try to understand exactly what it was about her that made her so impossible to ignore. Why had the simple act of touching his hands sent him off this way? Peter was a very tactile person, forever touching and hugging, goosing people in the corridors, ruffling hair and even stealing the occasional kiss (especially from Jean. It really drove her nuts). He touched people all the time, so why did it bother him when Angela touched him?

All the Professor's lessons in calming his mind, finding the quiet space to examine his thoughts one by one had vanished under this raging hurricane of confusion. It hadn't just been her touch, it was what that touch had done.

The moment Angela's skin had touched his, he'd tensed, expecting a shock like the first time she'd ever reached out and touched his fingers – or like all the times she'd retaliated against his badgering with a quick, sharp zap. This time though, something he couldn't fathom had happened. He stopped for the briefest instant, rifling through a drawer for the candy bars he'd hidden under his socks before deciding that actually, he wasn't really in the mood for candy and resuming his pacing.

Her skin had felt warm and alive on his. No shock this time but a bizarre tingle that spread up his arms and through his chest almost instantaneously, then a …. jolt, not a zap but a shifting of gears, a buzzing sensation that he could feel simultaneously everywhere and nowhere in particular. Guiding his hands in a gentle arc, the shifting sensation working its way up the back of his neck to tickle the base of his brain. He could suddenly see the slow path of the loop of wire moving not in agonising slow-motion, but at what felt like a … _normal_ speed. The longer she held his hands, the more he could feel his tense muscles relaxing, moving with her as if it was natural to do something at this pace. He'd become very aware of his heartbeat, dropping from a usual 600 or so bpm to 500, 450, 300… that singing tension that animated his nerves dissipating, even his breathing starting to slow and deepen. A second or two of contact, and he'd been able to sense his thoughts slowing gently to a crystal clarity. It was terrifying, it was shocking, it was….. _fantastic._

He didn't know how she was doing it, but somehow Angela had held his hands and brought him down to an almost normal speed of experience. How odd the world looked, seeing it through eyes that didn't saccade so rapidly that life looked like a jumpy film. The strangeness had shocked him silent, so terrible and wonderful that he'd had no choice but to get the hell out of there and bolt to his room to try and work out what had happened. When the contact had been broken, and everything had jumped back to its usual galloping pace, the change had been so jarring that it had felt like a kind of mental whiplash.

Peter had never known what it felt like to perceive in real-time. He'd always thought faster than everybody, moved faster than everybody – even before his X gene had kicked in full-strength he'd been running a much higher rate than anybody around him, and it had been so long now since he'd really come into his gifts that he no longer knew what normal was. He'd always imagined that it must be horrible, everything going so slowly, wondered how people coped with moving through a world that seemed to trickle by like molasses. Now, however, with his usual speed of thought and motion restored, he realised that it wasn't so bad – but this, THIS was awful. This felt like he was going too fast to even catch up with himself. He felt like crying, or screaming, or both, spurred on to greater than usual feats of speed by a desperate need to move. To outrun the discomfort of feeling like himself again. He could feel his calves starting to cramp in a way they only did when he was starting to run out of energy and needed to stop to refuel, but somehow he didn't feel able to do so. He switched to laps of the floor to avoid gravity taking its toll when he finally did start to slow down, pushing through the burning feeling spreading up his legs, hoping that if he went hard enough for long enough then he'd eventually be able to forget the peaceful feeling of normality he'd experienced for a few seconds whilst Angela held his hands.

Later, when Hank had quietly peeked in on him on his evening checks, he'd find the boy sprawled out on his bed fully dressed and dead to the world, and assume that either he still had some of those insanely powerful tranquilisers left or he was actually getting some rest for once, not noticing the faint groove that ran across the ceiling. He'd creep in to turn off the light and leave Peter to sleep, unaware that he'd deliberately run himself to exhaustion to try to outpace the crushing sensations. Conducting his own form of silent checks, Charles would peer lightly at the surface of his sleeping mind and frown at the odd image of joined hands he found, but dismiss it as a dream.


	8. Troublemaker

**Do you want another chapter? Because I've got another chapter, if you'd like to read it. Sadly he's not mine, but I can play with him for a little bit right?**

Puzzled and a little annoyed that her morning science class had been cancelled due to Dr McCoy being unexpectedly occupied, Angela had settled herself down in the common room wrestling with a textbook on heredity. Sciences weren't really her strong suit - except for physics, which was really just applied math in disguise to her. She blew air impatiently between her lips and turned her page, distracted by a weird little shiver through the overhead lights that she was pretty sure hadn't been her doing. Was this place on a fault line or something? As if to confirm the possibility of an earthquake, the discarded spoon from her breakfast bowl on the table in front of her began to jitter against the china. Looking up, she immediately let the book slide off her lap as she froze in terror, seeing none other than the Grumpy Old Jerk from the mall striding across the room toward her with a look on his face that presaged something awful. Without warning, the spoon lifted off from the bowl and she let out a shrill little scream as it shot toward her face and hovered just in front of her right eye. The man stood over her, glowered down with a look that would melt steel, and demanded

"What have you done to my son?"

Angela gaped like a beached fish, jerking her head back with a gasp as the spoon made a little dart toward her eye socket. She shook her head, terrified and confused.

"Wha - who - I didn't do anything to anyone!" she babbled, voice trembling, "I don't even know your son man, who -"

"You know him alright" Erik spat, "about this big, silver hair, never stands still, currently down in the infirmary"

"Oh..." Angela said softly, catching his drift. "Is he... okay?"

"Why would he be in the infirmary if he was okay you foolish little wretch? Now come here"

Angela screamed again as the spoon dropped, and she was jerked forward by a searing pain in her left nostril. Some force had grabbed hold of her nose ring (steel alloy, temptingly magnetic) and pulled. To prevent the ring ripping through the flesh of her nostril, she followed in the direction it seemed to want to go and found herself standing in front of the furious man. Erik released his hold on her piercing, took her roughly by the arm, and proceeded to sweep out of the common room with her pushed in front of him. Angela was too shocked to protest - not usually the type to just go limp when faced with a fight, something told her that this fight would not leave her the winner, and besides it felt like he would crush her elbow in his strong fingers if she tried to resist. She stumbled to match his long strides, propelled down to the school infirmary to be pushed at Hank McCoy with a disgusted shove.

"Deal with her, Hank" Erik growled, giving her another vicious glare, "she might not survive if I do it"

He turned away, returning to one of the bays. Angela at last noticed a shaking little bundle with a blanket around it sat on the edge of a bed, recognized the silver head hung low over a basin. Her jaw dropped a little, staggered at the bluish-white pallor she could see from here. Erik sat down gently on the bed, one arm coming to rest protectively around the young man's shoulders.

"I didn't do anything!" she turned wide blue eyes on Hank, pleading with him through her surprise and fear. The scientist smiled ruefully, reached to steer her away to his office at the end of the sick bay.

"I'm sure you didn't mean to, Angela," Hank said kindly, regarding her over the rims of his glasses, "but it looks like it had something to do with you. Come on, come sit down"

He closed the office door, pulling a chair out for the girl to sit down. To her utter shock and dismay, she collapsed down into it and dissolved into panicky sobs. Not because she was worried, not because she was scared of the tall man who had threatened to gouge her eye out, but because she really didn't want to have screwed up again badly enough to make them kick her out. _Stupid, stupid STUPID_ , she thought angrily, to have let herself settle in like this. It might have taken a little longer than usual, but she was still going to get expelled again. Hank looked flustered, unsure what to do, until he had finally pulled himself together and offered her the box of tissues from his desk before coming to take a seat with her. Angela snuffled, blew her nose noisily, and wiped at the streaked make up down her face before looking up at Hank at last.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked, voice thick and shaky, "Is he going to be alright?"

Hank smiled fondly at her and nodded

"He'll be fine, don't worry. It's just a touch of shock and exhaustion. A day's rest will fix him up right as rain, perhaps even less than a day given that it's Peter we're dealing with"

In truth, Hank had been a lot more worried an hour ago when Kurt had materialized in the infirmary with an unconscious body over his shoulder. The kid had gone up to Peter's room to investigate after he hadn't showed up for breakfast - an absolutely unheard of event - and been concerned by his refusal to move or open his eyes despite the blue boy's prodding and persuasion. It was never easy when one of the students fell ill - many of them had such radically altered physiologies that Hank hardly knew what to do for the best. Most of the time he just took some bloods, made them comfortable and tried to work it out from there. The doctor had been shaken up pretty badly by those results though - he'd never seen anybody still alive who had _negative_ blood sugars before. To his relief it had only taken fifteen minutes of a glucose IV before Peter had started to come round, and Hank had managed to ascertain that the boy had worn himself into the ground after a run-in with Angela. That had been all he'd got out of him, however, before he'd come over lightheaded and nauseous and refused to talk or move any more than was totally vital. That stubbornness (Hank knew exactly where he got it from) was impossible to overcome, and he had left the boy to rest until such time as he bounced back enough to manage something to eat. At least this time he hadn't had the task of trying to immobilize a twitchy speedster with a broken leg, and felt sure that once he'd pulled himself through whatever crisis he'd worked himself up to and got a few Twinkies down he would be absolutely fine. The same could however probably not be said for Angela, whom Hank had genuinely feared for after Peter's father had shown up. Despite tentative peace between himself and the metal-bending mutant, Hank was still not prepared to tell him that actually Angela had probably just been the accident rather than the instigator. It was hardly her fault if Peter had got himself in a state, but gods forbid that he laid any blame on Erik's precious boy. Nevertheless, he needed to find out exactly what had gone on - it sounded like it could shed some light on the extent of Angela's gifts.

The girl still looked as if she might cry again, scrunching a ball of tissue in her hand and seeming poised to flee the room. Hank tried a comforting smile, reaching over and squeezing her shoulder kindly.

"It's alright, Angela. You're not here to be punished"

"But - that guy - "

"Erik is a very protective father. Try not to worry about it - he'll forgive you as soon as Peter feels better"

That was an outright lie, he knew. Erik would neither forget nor forgive it until his dying day, he really knew how to hold a grudge. Then again, he considered Angela to have got off likely that it was only the boy's father around for this. If it had been Magda Maximoff he'd called in to take care of their boy, then Angela wouldn't have had a hope in hell.

"Can you tell me exactly what happened yesterday afternoon?" Hank asked, "I do appreciate that you don't really understand your capabilities, but when things like this happen we use them as a chance to learn. So just tell me everything you can"

Angela shook her head, swiped fiercely at her leaky eyes, "I don't know, honestly. Last I saw of him yesterday we were outside blowing giant bubbles, and he couldn't do it because he was moving the loop too fast. So I helped him"

"Helped him how?"

"I steadied his hands, so he could move the loop properly - but that's all and I SWEAR I didn't shock him!"

"I see..." Hank tapped a pen against his teeth meditatively, "You're certain? Can you feel it when you discharge electricity?"

"Every time, I couldn't have done it without knowing" calming a little, she threw the wadded tissue hard at the waste basket, "And I was just trying to help. That kid's so weird, one minute he's in my face wanting to know everything about me, the next he can hardly look at me and runs off when I'm near. Seriously Doc? I think he's the problem here, not me"

"You may well be right,"

"I - I might?" she looked taken aback, "what do you -"

"Let me think about this. Can you come to my lab with me? I think I have an idea of what might have happened but there's an experiment I want to try first"

Angela looked dubious, but nodded, rising from her chair to go

"Ohhh-kay... so what are you going to do about Speedy Gonzales? Do you need to treat him or will he be alright without you?"

Hank smiled, pulled down a couple of notebooks before holding the office door open for her

"Erik can look after him, he doesn't need anything more than chicken soup and sympathy, possibly a little sleep if he can manage it" _And maybe an explanation would help too_ , Hank thought, locking up the office and leading Angela away to his lab.


	9. You Have Cast A Chill on My Heart

**Peter is not mine, Erik is not mine, Hank is not mine. Angela's mine but she's fighting it. This pot of coffee is definitely mine though. Thanks again to all readers and reviewers, your feedback and support is immensely appreciated.**

Erik had bloody murder in mind as he gently stroked his son's back, Whilst he'd been slowly coming around to forming coherent sentences again, the inexplicable nausea still hadn't quite passed. He patted the boy softly between the shoulder blades as he retched again, his whole body seeming to convulse with the force of it. It would probably have been better if he'd actually had anything to bring up, but that was half the problem. Erik took a silent vow that he would never chastise his son for his ravenous appetite for junk again, if this was what skipping a single meal could do to him.

"I'm fine," Peter muttered, hanging onto the basin for dear life, "really"

"You're not fine and you're not leaving this room until you don't look like death warmed over. Do I make myself plain?"

A sickly little smile at that, half an attempt at a laugh that didn't come out right at all.

"Yes Dad"

The younger man sat back carefully, allowing Erik to take the basin from him and settling deep into the blanket around his shoulders. It had been a long time since this had happened, and truth be told he hadn't missed it one little bit. When he'd been younger and nowhere near as chilled out as he was now, a week had rarely gone by without him getting himself into just this kind of predicament. His mother used to despair of him, tucking him up on the sofa and fussing over him until it had passed. By the time he'd hit his teens she had been more relaxed about it, finally realising that there wasn't anything a doctor could do for him and that these little episodes never lasted long or did him any permanent harm. Thankfully for him, Hank made far less of a fuss than his mother had done, recognising that despite the outward appearance of a boy with a horrendous case of 'flu he was actually just so tired that his body was rebelling against it with all its considerable might. He'd avoided this for years now, his Mother having come to recognise when he was working himself up and forcing him with a gentle will that was iron nonetheless to sit still and eat something before he got to the point of exhaustion. Erik had never seen it before however, and he felt the need to explain himself before his Father got too worked up himself.

"Honestly, this used to happen a lot" he said quietly, pulling the blanket around himself more tightly to ward off the shivers, "Before I realised I couldn't just keep going indefinitely, I used to run til I collapsed quite a bit. Mom hated it"

"Of course she hated it Peter, you look like you're on the edge of a coma"

"I'm not though, I promise" he paused, considered the glass of water beside the bed deeply, was it too soon to try that or would he just start retching again? "I just missed dinner and ran too long, that's all"

"And got a shock from that wretched girl" Erik snarled, "that won't have helped you"

"She didn't shock me," Peter murmured, deciding on the water and reaching out with a trembling hand, "she…. did something, but it wasn't a shock"

"She hurt you" Erik said coldly, "I can't allow that"

"Please – don't do anything to her, okay?" those deep puppy dog eyes were gazing up at him in a manner so appealing that his heart softened, "she didn't mean it. It was just an accident" _and my own fault,_ Peter added silently. He took little sips of water, unwilling to make himself queasy again. Erik smiled down at him, a tight uncomfortable smile that nevertheless told his son that he wouldn't retaliate until Peter asked him to. No matter how much he wanted to smash the girl's bones to powder right at that moment. Calcium was a metal too, and he could grind it right out of her if he chose to for harming his boy.

Down in the laboratory, Angela bit her lip and hesitated in front of the work bench

"Go on," Hank encouraged her, "It's okay, I promise"

Gently she reached down into the open-top cage and stroked a finger over the white mouse that pottered about inside, trying as best she could to replicate that pushing feeling of _slow, relax_ that she remembered coursing through her when she had taken Peter's hands. The mouse twitched, then lay still, Hank almost fancied he could see a dreamy feeling of relaxation creeping through its little red eyes.

"Now stop"

Angela removed her hand rapidly. The mouse lay still, only a tiny movement of its ribcage belied that it was still alive. As they observed though, a spasm passed through its pink feet and it had suddenly righted itself. Hank slapped the top back onto the cage just before the mouse had begun tearing around it at top mousy speed, panic gripping the little creature. Angela felt horrible, putting an innocent animal through that – worse still, the idea that she could have put a _person_ through it too.

"What's it doing?" she asked, feeling tears staring to prick her eyes again with guilt, "Why is it running about like that?"

Hank opened his mouth to reply, but before he could do so the mouse suddenly staggered to a halt, panted for breath for a couple of seconds, then fell stiffly onto its side. Angela's mouth fell open in dismay and horror.

"Oh… dear" Hank frowned

"Is it dead? Oh my god did I just kill it?!" She let those tears go. Way too much crying for one day, but the situation seemed to justify it. Hank reached in and picked up the corpse. He'd have to thoroughly examine it to find out what had happened, but he could already guess.

"I'm sorry," he said guiltily, regarding the girl who suddenly looked so vulnerable. It was hard on young Mutants when they found out that their powers had dangers, "I didn't think it was going to die"

"Why did it though?!" she demanded, "I didn't shock it, I just…."

"I have a theory, hopefully the necropsy will confirm it. I think you are able to exert control over the rate of firing of neurons, which in turn will slow down every bodily process. When you tried to slow the mouse down, that's what you did – why it got so relaxed"

"But why did it run about after if I slowed it down?"

"Recoil" Hank made a pensive face, hoping he wouldn't have to spell out the consequences. The girl looked upset enough, "Everything went back to a normal rate, and…."

"And the shock made it run itself to death" she said glumly, "Great. I can add murderer to my list"

She turned away, winding her fingers into the sleeves of her shirt. Hank's heart broke at that, and instinctively he reached out and scooped her into a tight hug.

"It's only a mouse," he said quietly. The girl was shaking in his arms, "It's alright"

"But I killed it" her voice sounded muffled against his shirt, wishing it was her Dad giving her a hug and telling her it was okay – though Hank was a pretty good substitute, truth be told. "And I could have killed Peter"

"He's stronger than that, Angela. Don't worry, you won't have done him any lasting harm"

Hank thought quickly of all the times the boy had ended up marched down to the infirmary after hurting himself in training. Running into obstacles that moved into his path, twisting ankles and elbows in traps, giving himself a black eye and broken nose when he tried to defeat one of the training robots alone. Every time he'd been fine within a half hour – even bruises didn't last long on him, and the impatient kid had been more irritated than hurt every time. Although this was a little more serious, he'd already been coming out of it by the time they left him, and Hank was certain the girl had no reason to worry. She was going to, though, not least because unlike a mouse, Peter could hold it against her. Mutant or not, she was a 22 year old girl who'd hurt a classmate. Lucky for her that it *had* been Peter – so unlike his Father in that respect, he didn't even know how to resent individual people, and would have already moved on from the slight.

"Why don't you go relax for a while, I'm going to do some further investigations" he suggested, meaning _I'm going to cut this dead mouse up and you don't want to see it._ Angela nodded sadly, cuffed at her nose and reluctantly let go of Hank. "And don't be by yourself, my dear – go find your friends. We need to draw together to cope, not shut ourselves away"

Intending to try to comfort herself with the normality of Saturday morning cartoons and company, Angela had returned to the common room, disappointed to see that it looked deserted. She was about to turn and go when a voice came from one of the sofas, making her jump out of her skin.

"Hey," Peter called again, "You OK?"

The girl looked terrified to see him, it made him feel so bad for her. He kicked his feet down from where he had been stretched out on the sofa, patted the cushion. Reluctantly Angela came to join him, crushing herself into the opposite arm to be as far away as possible.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out, after a moment, "I didn't mean to –"

"Don't sweat it"

He tried to say it casually, but he could see how upset the girl was. He hated the thought that he'd been responsible for that. There were still streaks of electric blue on her cheeks from running eyeliner and her eyes were red and puffy. He was trying so hard to be cool about this, but his emotions were always strong and he couldn't help but show them with his wide, expressive eyes. Angela nodded, bringing her gaze up to meet his and seeing that the boy looked almost as concerned as her. He didn't look so pale now, but there were shadows under his eyes that hadn't been there before and his face looked drawn and strained. It hurt to see that she'd done that. Trying to break the tension, Peter reached for the remote from the table and switched the sound back on. Seeming absorbed in both Porky Pig and the tub of ice cream he was working his way through. At last, Angela spoke again.

"Did it hurt?"

He glanced up at her, wishing he could give her a hug and make her feel better – she sounded so miserable. Shook his head and shovelled in another spoonful.

"It tickled" he told her, "and felt really weird, but no it didn't hurt"

"I could have really hurt you though"

Peter snorted in derision, trying to conceal the whirlwind of confusing emotion

"Nah, not me – tough as nails"

She regarded him, chasing the last couple of spoonfuls around the bottom of the tub. She'd never properly got the chance to look at him and had never realised before that his astounding vivacity and huge personality concealed something fragile and sensitive. Sure, he acted tough and devil-may-care, but that wasn't the whole truth. Not by a long shot. She knotted her hands in her lap, insulating gloves back on now just in case she inadvertently touched someone. There was silence for a few minutes, Peter slumping back on the sofa and appearing deep in thought beside her until he had finally spoken again.

"Y'know, I got kicked out of school too"

Angela wasn't surprised, but she raised her eyebrows in question anyway

"It's not so easy, being different" he continued, "that's why it's good that you're here now. We're all different here. I'm glad you found us"

He offered her a lopsided smile that lit up his eyes briefly, and made something inside Angela clench weirdly. Damn he was cute when he smiled like that, looking so much younger than his 26 years. She smiled back despite her nerves, dropped her eyes shyly.

"Thanks" she murmured, "And I'm glad you're okay"

"Fine and dandy – Xavier says I need to take it easy today, no speeding, get an early night, free reign on the 'fridge for the rest of the day. Sounds good to me" _because right now, I couldn't run if I tried,_ he didn't say, "I get to sit on my ass, eat candy and watch cartoons. I should be thanking you"

She laughed at that. The boy really had forgiven her, it seemed

"Like you need an excuse to be a pig"

"Yeah speaking of, do you wanna go get something to eat? I'm starving, and I have this craving for fried chicken"

"You just finished a whole pint of ice cream"

"So I had dessert first, so what" he rose to his feet, and to her immense surprise grabbed one gloved hand and pulled her with him, "C'mon, some fresh air will do us good"

They were halfway down the driveway before Angela realised that Peter had not let go of her hand.


	10. I'm Only Sleeping

**Not mine, not mine, not mine...**

Hank wasn't squeamish – with a job like his, it didn't pay to be – but even so he had felt a little sick when he'd started to investigate the mouse's corpse after Angela had gone. The poor thing was a mess inside, its aorta torn cleanly away from its heart, lungs ruptured, haemorrhages from all its major organs. He'd have to wait for the centrifuge to finish processing its brain to find out if his theory was correct, but even without that he could see that this little mammal had gone so hard and so fast that it had broken itself. He shuddered inwardly at what he might have had to deal with if Angela had done that to one of the other students. It had been pure luck that she had gone for one of the few who could survive that sort of physical stress, even if he had made himself sick doing so.

He'd always been fascinated by Peter, taken every possible opportunity to study his mutation when it arose. When he'd broken his leg and Hank had to make sure he was healing well and would be safe to return to training, some of the testing he'd conducted hadn't been strictly necessary, but it was the only way to satisfy his curiosity about the young man's incredible adaptations. Peter hated feeling like a lab rat, as any of them would, but combined with his impatience and distractibility Hank could never get him to agree to just a little further investigation without a reason. What he already knew explained why he hadn't ended up like the mouse though. His entire body was perfectly adapted to speed, with tendons and muscles that had the strength of plaited steel and enormously thick walls in his heart and blood vessels to handle the strain he put on them. Bones that despite a honeycomb structure similar to birds were insanely strong, though they were also very light. Even his blood was different, crammed with so much iron that a transfusion into a human would have poisoned them, but perfect for delivering the oxygen he needed to keep up the pace he was capable of. There was nothing about him that didn't serve his mutation, even down to tougher membranes in his eyes and skin to resist friction, and cells bursting with huge mitochondria to pump out the enormous amounts of energy his speeding took. Despite all that however, his greatest strength was also his greatest weakness – he could store far more glycogen in his muscles than a human but he used it far faster, and that meant keeping up a continual supply of calories. Hank wondered if he was the only doctor out there whose field kit included a box of Twinkies. Skipping dinner to him was like starving someone for a fortnight, and Hank was hardly surprised that it had made the boy so unwell, and glad that the solution to that problem was so easy.

The centrifuge made a low _ding_ that indicated that the mouse brain was ready to be tested, and he eagerly retrieved the test tubes from the machine to begin. As he had suspected, a few simple tests revealed that right before the mouse had died its system had been flooded with adrenaline, but there were also strong traces of GABA in there – indicating that it had been close to sleeping before that sudden last burst of energy. Hank marvelled at the extent of Angela's gift, so powerful that she could control the electrochemical gates in a creature's brain at will. Truly that was a power worth developing – but for now, it was also a hideous danger to everybody around her. The last thing he needed was consequences worse than a sickly speedster – someone else would have died if she had done that. With time and effort she might be able to push more gently, manipulate creatures at a cellular level, a staggering and awesome ability that threw her spark-spitting fingers into the shade.

Hank gathered up the print outs and notes, intending to take them directly to Charles and let him know what he had found. This could change everything for Angela – and the Professor was the one best placed to decide how they were going to work with her to control and develop this ability. On his way, he popped his head around the door of the common room to check on the girl, make sure she was feeling better after her recent shock. He smiled broadly as he saw the TV tuned to an old comedy film that nobody was watching, the only two occupants of the room sprawled out on the sofa soundly asleep. Peter was slumped down with both arms flung across the backrest, head lolling to one side and his mouth slightly open. Angela was stretched out beside him with her head resting comfortably on his stomach. As he watched, Angela stirred slightly, and Peter's arm came down to tuck around her chest and settle her down again. _No hard feelings there_ , Hank thought with a grin, and continued up to the office.

Registering Hank's eyes on him at some level, Peter opened one eye slightly, considered waking up and decided that right how really couldn't be bothered. One good thing that came of his episodes of exhaustion was that for a short period afterwards his energy would be so depleted that he didn't even feel twitchy or restless. Though he could feel his thoughts starting to race again now his body still refused to catch up. He glanced down at the girl snuggled up beside him and smiled lazily, it was good to be able to be still and even better to have someone there with him whilst he did it. Though to be honest, he'd rather she hadn't been using his stomach as a pillow just at that moment, feeling a little too full for that to be entirely comfortable. It wasn't too bad though, not enough to stop him from closing his eyes again and drifting back to sleep. Sliding down a little further in his seat to take the weight of Angela's head off two family-sized buckets of chicken legs, a huge slice of apple pie, and the entire pack of chocolate chip cookies he'd devoured when they got back, he sighed contentedly and let himself drift off again. He knew this couldn't last, that when he woke up he'd probably feel just as animated and aching to move as always. He would annoy Angela with chatter, feel the need to go run a few laps of the house to rid himself of the burden of needing to speed, be here one millisecond and gone the next. Such a pity, when they'd spent such a lovely afternoon together. She was funny, clever in a way he could never hope to be, wise beyond her years, *and* she was Jewish. He smiled at the thought of how happy his mother would be if he brought such a nice girl home for Hannukah.

It wasn't to be though. She couldn't hope to keep up with him, had only got this brief afternoon of time spent with him at her pace because he was recovering. He wondered if she felt so far away from him too, so unable to do anything but be exasperated and irritated by him simply because he couldn't stop. It was a shame, he thought – she really was pretty, especially laid out like this with her tousled mop of golden hair spread in little wisps over her high cheekbones, long eyelashes laying on her cheeks in sleep and a faint smile gracing her lips. It would have been lovely to say to her _Angela, will you be my girlfriend?_ and go to the movies, enjoy each other's company, fall asleep like this whenever they pleased. But that wasn't going to happen. He couldn't sit through the trailers, let alone a full movie, nobody could enjoy the company of a boy who bounced from one subject to the next without a moment's pause or warning, and as for sleeping together? He usually didn't sleep for more than fifteen minutes at a time, how could he possibly expect to keep her with him?

He wondered if she realised that though they shared the distinction of being different, they were still poles apart. Sure, he liked her – but he wasn't willing to get an electric shock every time he unthinkingly took her hand and she happened to not be wearing her gloves. Every moment of a relationship with her would be a fight to keep their mutations from clashing in disastrous ways, and it could only end in one or both of them feeling devastated. Probably him, given that he hadn't even asked the girl out and was already deeply saddened by the loss.

Pushing the morose thoughts to the back of his mind, Peter settled down and tucked his arm a little further around her, holding on to what they could have. This one day, he could pretend that they were a normal boy and a normal girl dozing on the sofa on a Saturday afternoon. That would have to be enough for now. He was used to settling for what he could get, after all, why should this be any different? Suddenly, it was very clear why his father had chosen to be with a human woman. They were so much less complex, so much less potential walking disasters. He decided that he would simply accept that this wouldn't happen, and relax until he was no longer able to, knowing that time would come sooner than he wished.

 **A/N : A huge apology to all the fellow medical/scientific types out there. It's fiction, but I still feel bad when I twist things in ways that couldn't work in reality.**


	11. Ground Control

**I'm thinking a couple more chapters then I might bring it to a close. Any more requests or suggestions before I plan out the end of this little saga? Nothing's mine, but I do have my very own oximeter.**

"No"

"Angela, please, the –"

"I said no!" she even stamped her foot, folding her arms petulantly, "No more mice. I'm not hurting or killing anything else"

"But we have to test the device" Hank tried to explain soothingly, "You need to try to control something living, or we won't know if it works"

Over the past few weeks, under Charles' guidance, Hank had refined the dampening harness into a pair of gauntlets that produced a strong magnetic field, hoping that would be enough to modulate Angela's electrical discharges. They had worked under every lab test he could conceive, but now the time had come to test them out on a living creature. He wasn't surprised that she wasn't willing to do it, however. Hank forgot sometimes that the detachment of a research scientist wasn't something that came naturally to others. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"If there was any other way, we wouldn't ask you to do this"

"We? Who's we?"

"The Professor and I. And… Erik"

Angela's anger quickly turned to terror at the mere mention of Erik. She'd managed to avoid running into him again since she'd pushed his son over the edge, and was profoundly grateful for that. The key components of the gauntlets had been of his design, and he'd even offered to come to the lab and fit them properly so that they would sit on her wrists like a second skin. It wasn't like Erik to do favours, and Hank suspected that he was only being helpful in this case because he thought it might shield Peter from danger. After the last little episode the boy had been back on form the very next day, but Erik was still concerned that he would get himself into more trouble with the girl – perhaps he wasn't so dense where it came to relationships after all, and had realised that Peter was highly likely to let her take his hands again.

"I won't" Angela said firmly, "Not unless I know it's safe"

Hank sighed. This was going to go round in circles all day. The only way to find out if they were safe was to try it. The girl was so stubborn though, there was just no talking her around. He wracked his brains for a way to put this to her that she would accept, coming up with nothing. Finally, he resorted to pleading.

"Please, Angela. If it's not safe then I promise I won't make you try again. We'll find some other way. Just this once"

"If you can find another way then why don't you just do that now?"

She arched an eyebrow at him, watching him realise that her logic was inescapable. Of course there was no other way, she knew it as well as he did. Why did she have to be so smart as well as so powerful? He threw his hands up in frustration, giving up for the time being and about to unfasten the gauntlets and let her go back to class when someone spoke from the doorway.

"Can I help?"

One of the very few rules that Peter remembered and stuck by was that he didn't come into Hank's lab without being expressly told he could, so he hovered in the doorway, hands stuck in his pockets and shifting restlessly from one foot to the other. The kid looked scared, and eager, but mostly just scared. It was amazing to Hank that this boy who had charged in to combat situations with a smirk on his face and Jim Croce blaring in his ears would look so worried at the sight of a pretty girl. He didn't even get a chance to answer the speedster before Angela cut in.

"Oh _hell_ no!"

"You know you can't hurt me though. It's better than killing a mouse right?"

"I DID hurt you, man!" she raised her voice, but not in anger "You were horribly sick last time! I saw you, you looked halfway dead"

"Yeah for like six hours, then I was fine. Come on, Angela, just –"

"She's right, Peter. It's too dangerous" Hank interrupted, giving the boy a hard but not unkind look, "What would your father think if I let you endanger yourself like that?"

Forgetting that one rule, Peter marched into the lab and pulled up a chair opposite Angela

"I'm an adult, Hank. I may look young, and I may goof off a lot, but I don't need my Dad's permission for everything I do" He paused, thought a moment, "My Mom's maybe, but she's not here. Get on with it"

"But –"

"You wired that treadmill up to my speed, right?" he indicated the machine in the corner, looked up at Hank with steely determination in his eyes, "If what happened last time happens again then I can run here, you can keep an eye on me. I'll even eat one of those awful bar things you came up with"

"They're very nutritionally complete" Hank said quietly, looking a little hurt

"They taste like sawdust and vinegar" he snapped, "Step to it, man – Angela, I swear you won't do me any harm. This is important, you have to find out how to control yourself. We all have to someday"

Swallowing hard, the girl looked between the two of them and nodded, looking terrified. Hank sighed yet again. The both of them were as obstinate as mules, they deserved each other.

"Fine," the doctor said at last, "take your shirt off"

"Say what?!"

"The pulse oximeter won't work on your finger with an electrical charge running through it, and I want to monitor your heart rate whilst we do this. That means wiring you up to the EKG," Hank explained patiently, "so strip"

Peter gave Angela a sidelong look, hesitating. Hank almost laughed out loud – he was willing to charge in and put himself at risk, but not to go shirtless in front of a girl. It was kind of hilarious. With an agonising slowness that didn't suit him, Peter eased his shoulders out of his silver biker jacket and hung it carefully on the back of the chair, hesitating again before finally peeling off his t-shirt. Angela looked away, cheeks flaming scarlet. He was _beautiful_ , with perfect cream-coloured skin, broader shoulders than she had thought, not an ounce of fat to conceal the lean muscles in his arms and torso. She couldn't meet his eyes, keeping hers fixed on the floor whilst Hank attached the electrodes to his chest. A high-pitched tone rose as he switched the monitor on.

"Is that thing broken?" Angela asked, looking up at the display. Glad to have anywhere to look except at Peter.

"Nah, it always does that" Peter explained, a blush colouring his own cheeks as the girl glanced his way, "My heart goes too fast for it to pick out the individual beats"

"Maybe not for long," Hank smiled grimly at him, "Angela, I'm ready when you are"

Finally she dragged her eyes back to meet his. Seeing the fear she felt reflected there, she silently questioned and received a little nod in reply, his hands held out to take hers. She took a deep breath and placed her hands on his palm to palm, fingers coming to rest lightly on his slender wrists. She pushed gently with her mind, feeling a tingling in her fingertips begin. Peter shivered, the sensation creeping up his arms was somehow different from what he'd experienced before, slower and more gentle. More like a caress than a jolt, it was actually remarkably pleasant.

"Slowly, Angela," Hank cautioned, "Go as gently as you can"

She nodded, closed her eyes to concentrate, thinking nothing was happening until she became aware of the steady tone from the EKG changing to a fast pulsing sound, still rapid but definitely slower. She pushed a little more, thinking _slow down, be calm, relax_ as much to herself as to Peter, and the beat dropped a little more. Hank watched in fascination as the display showed a steady decline in his pulse rate, watching the boy carefully. He had closed his eyes too, and Hank could see him relaxing his tense shoulders, feet no longer tapping out a fast tattoo on the floor. A minute passed, the EKG reading steadily dropping through the high hundreds to 250bpm. Still fast enough to be fatal in a human, but for Peter practically a crawl.

The boy had sat back in the chair, every bit of tension gone, chin resting on his chest. Angela had leaned in to follow him, lightly clasping their hands together resting on his thighs. Both still had their eyes closed, and Hank was mesmerised by the strange communion between them. He would have to bring Charles next time he did this, and find out what thoughts were flowing through their minds. Distracted by the sight of the two young people dropping deeper and deeper into what looked almost like a shared trance, he barely noticed the EKG registering 150 – about right for a human pushing themselves on the top end of a cardio cycle. Far too slow for Peter, he was going to pass out if that carried on. Panicking a little but trying not to show it Hank commanded,

"That's enough! This is the hard part, try and pull it back but _slowly_ "

He waited in an agony of anticipation, watching the boy intently as Angela frowned and tried to exert the opposite force as gently as she could, _a little more, a little faster, come with me_. If she lost control now then it could spell disaster – the recoil from dropping that low might be too much even for Peter's ferociously strong system. Hardly realising that he'd been holding his breath, Hank let it out in a rush as Peter's eyes began to flicker open again, lifting his head and taking a deep breath himself. The monitor reading picked up speed, little twitches running through his body as he stiffened up, until at last Angela had sat back drenched in sweat, arms falling limply to the sides.

"Did I do it?" she slurred, giving Hank a wonky look

"Yes, yes my dear you did wonderfully!" he replied, "Well done, it seems we've made a breakthrough"

She gave him a dazed smile, and muttered "Great" before toppling off the chair unconscious.

She could only have been out for a moment, but when she opened her eyes again she looked straight up into deep brown eyes shot with worry and concern. Peter had his hands on her shoulders, shaking her very lightly, calling her name. She smiled up at him gently and relief flooded through him, she was okay, thank God. She didn't move for a moment, very aware that he was leaning over her still shirtless with the electrodes dangling from their attachments.

"Are you alright?" he demanded, "Speak dude, tell me you're okay"

"I'm okay" she managed, "Are you okay?"

"Kinda woozy, really hungry – but yeah, I'm fine. You did great"

The full realisation hit her as she swam slowly back up to full consciousness. She was exhausted, sweat still drying and matting her hair, but she had done it – she'd used her gift under her full control. Happiness flooded her in a way that she couldn't recall feeling for years.

"I did, didn't I?" she grinned up at him. Not thinking, she lunged up with delight and grabbed him up in a hug, arms wrapping around his waist to pull him toward her. He let out a little yelp and jerked suddenly as her bare hands contacted his bare back, sending a huge shock through him. The EKG made a complaining whine then exploded in a shower of sparks.

" _Now_ it's broken" Hank muttered.

 **A/N : Big thanks to a guest reviewer who suggested that Hank should make some sort of supplement bar or shake for Peter so that he doesn't get hypoglycaemic. Great idea! I think Peter would rather have a big greasy pile of fries than something 'healthy' though ;-)**


	12. Wish You Were Here

**I'm so glad that so many people have enjoyed this story. This is the final chapter now - all good things must come to an end! But I've got rather attached to Angela Goldsmith, so she might show up again in another story. As always, nothing is mine - thanks so much for all the support and reviews, they mean the world to me. Enjoy the (slightly open-ended) conclusion.**

Angela closed her eyes and listened to the music, a contented smile on her lips.

 _So you think, you think you can tell_

 _Heaven from hell,_

 _Blue skies from pain…._

"See, you're enjoying it" Peter smirked at her, "I told you Pink Floyd were cool"

She laughed softly at him, squeezing the hand she held and moving a little closer.

"Okay, they don't entirely suck"

They were laid out on the bed in Peter's room, sunshine that held the promise of coming Fall streaming in through the window and catching at the gold in Angela's hair, giving a warm glow to Peter's pale skin. With practice, she had found that she could slow him and hold him at a normal pace as long as she kept hold of his hand. She just had to remember to let him speed back up before she let go, and there was no recoil to deal with – though as everything seemed to, it still made him hungry. Under the pretence of further practice, they had retired upstairs for him to educate her in what he considered good music, and to enjoy the ability to lay together with her without his fast-twitch muscles and speeding thoughts making relaxation impossible. One arm around her shoulders, holding tightly to her hand, she rested her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"I wish we could do this without using my powers"

"Me too, it tires you out doesn't it?"

She nodded, her other hand sneaking up under his shirt to rest on his flat stomach and pull him closer still. Briefly opening her eyes to look at the stopwatch beside the bed. She could only hold this for about twenty minutes before she began to get so tired that her control would slip. It was paradise, laying here with him perfectly relaxed, letting the music wash over them both and enjoying the warmth of his body beside hers. The stopwatch stood at 11 minutes now. _If only I could slow down time too,_ she thought regretfully. Maybe if she could, then they could have some kind of a future together. Even Erik had been kinder to her lately, seeing the effect it was having on Peter to have somebody he could feel close to – there was no denying the kid wasn't so erratic now that he didn't feel so lonely.

"How about Static?" he said suddenly, "For your codename"

Angela made a wry face at him, snorted with laughter

"That's stupid"

"No it's not! It totally works – like static electricity. I think Static is a great name"

"Yeah I'm not taking advice from you on that, 'Quicksilver' "

"What's wrong with Quicksilver?" he looked a little petulant "I think it suits me"

"Mmm and it's so original, what with you being quick and silver"

"Exactly" he seemed to think he'd proven a point somehow, gave her a squeeze with the arm curled around her and gently placed a hand over the one resting on his middle "I like Angela, though. That's the best name for you"

"Thanks," she yawned, 13 minutes on the clock, she was getting tired, she'd have to let him speed back up soon, "I got it for my birthday"

He grinned and chuckled at her. He loved her sarcastic sense of humour most out of anything about her, even more than her bravery and her intelligence. It matched up with his snarkiness in just the right way. She was silent for a short time, before she'd quietly said

"We have to stop soon, Peter"

"I know, I know.. just a couple minutes more though?"

"I don't mean stop this, now" she said sadly, "I mean stop altogether. Before one of us gets hurt"

He gazed down at her, and internally she kicked herself. He was giving her those puppy-dog eyes again, and she knew she'd hurt his feelings. Even without his speed Peter was a hot mess sometimes, and this *was* the first time he'd ever been with anybody after all.

"Come on, man" she said softly, "Are you really satisfied with a girl you can only have for twenty minutes at a time?"

"Yes" he answered just as softly. She could swear his eyes looked a little damp, _please, please don't, I can't handle making you cry,_ she thought "Twenty minutes with you is better than an hour with anyone else"

"Long-term though? I don't know what this is doing to you, I could be damaging your brain or something. And don't act all rough and tough, you've got limitations like anybody else"

Fifteen minutes. She pulled back softly, letting him pick up a little speed.

 _How I wish, how I wish you were here…._

 _We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl_

 _Year after year…._

"I know…." He swallowed hard around a sudden lump in his throat, "And you're probably right. But can't we just have a little longer? I mean, I'm okay for now – can't we just deal with a problem if it happens?"

She felt the little shudder in his body as he started climbing back up to his usual state of animation. Wished she could let him rest for longer, wished she could stay here and hold him all afternoon. Wished that the peace she could give him would last. She truly did feel something deep for the quirky, jumpy kid who had presented her with a rose that matched her hair the moment he had met her. She'd come to know his sensitivity and his loneliness over the past couple of months and hated to add to the burden of isolation that his gifts brought with them, but equally she couldn't spend her life slowing him down just so that they could even connect. It was almost as exhausting as trying to deal with him when he was up to his ordinary pace.

18 minutes, his heart was thundering rapidly in her ear now, almost back up to speed. She smiled, swiped at a tear that she hadn't been aware she'd shed. Turned to put one knee either side of his legs and take hold of both hands, leaning down and pressing her lips against his with a passion that surprised her. Feeling the last of her ability draining away, she let him go back to normal. To her immense surprise, he didn't twitch or move away, but slid his hands around her waist and pulled her close to him, holding on tight. She could feel his heartbeat, now a buzz like a bees wing against her chest. It must have been an enormous effort for him to lay still like this, and she realised with a shock that it was an effort he was making for her.

"Please stay," he whispered into her hair, "I can try if you can too"

She smiled, combed her fingers through his hair, careful not to zap him as she did so. Painfully aware of a sudden that she was laying fully on top of him, their bodies pressed close together, she could feel his muscles spasming rapidly with the need to move, but he stayed. She nodded, and pressed her lips against his once more, loving their warmth and softness, feeling his hands slide lower to rest in the small of her back, thumbs moving in little circles, pressing her hard against him. Then she pulled away, laughter shaking her body

"What?" he asked, frowning in confusion

"I can feel your belly churning, you know" she giggled, "Come on, let's go eat"

"Later" he told her, though he could tell she was right and he was absolutely ravenous, "Come here"

He pulled her back and kissed her deeply, closing his eyes. Soon he'd have to move, the stillness was killing him, but for now this was exactly where he wanted to be.

 **A/N : Song is 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd from the album of the same name. Aren't these two so cute? Let's all go get ourselves a Twinkie now and wish Peter and Angela a happy afternoon together.**


End file.
